Wireless Recommendation for Fiber - Currently have R6400

[pkr505]

Hello,

I'm looking for a recommendation on how to better take advantage of the speeds of my fiber internet (1000/1000). I currently have my ISPs combo device configured to passthrough to my Netgear R6400.

I have a 1200 sqft house and my setup is centrally located. I have 15 or so connected devices (laptops, iPads, Pixel 3, iPhone X, etc) and the wireless speeds for what is typical use is acceptable. I understand that I won't get fiber speeds on wireless. My biggest complaint is that I have a Linux HTPC running primarily as a Plex server wired with CAT6 to the router and can barely get half of my advertised speeds.

I like the ease of use of having a consumer router, so have looked at the Router Rankings and initially considered the R7800. My hangup there is that I would be replacing my current router with one that is almost just as old. I did build my computer and have some knowledge of running Linux, so I'm not completely turned off by setting up a more business solution. I've read a little about the Edgerouter/AP combos and/or Microtik devices.

Saying that, my preference is something consumer grade as long as it can be as reliable as my current setup. My R6400 hardly ever drops connections or goes down, so other than the speeds I'm satisfied with it.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Trip]

Regarding the throughput issue, your R6400 is most likely running at least one service that's non-offloadable, circumventing hardware-accelerated NAT and requiring routing be done in-software (via CPU). Depending on whether you have an R6400 v1 (800Mhz CPU) or v2 (1Ghz CPU), that LAN-WAN throughput limit your seeing would be somewhere in the 200-500Mb/s or 300-700Mb/s range, respectively.

For a replacement all-in-one, I'd look for something with 4x4 spatial streams in 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz, to max out throughput over distance for your wifi clients, and a 1.5Ghz or faster CPU for max software routing speed, if it's ever needed again; ie. a higher-end late model AC Wave 2 or pre-draft AX unit, probably $200 USD or higher. I'm not sure of your budget, but that seems reasonable to me.

If you search SNB enough, the top recommendation for a mix of performance, stability and customizability seems to be the Asus RT-AX88U running Merlin (bug-fixed and more fully-featured stock firmware). However, the current street price has ballooned up to $349 in the USA (likely due to COVID). If that's too spendy, but either Merlin or AX were still intruiging, you might also look at the $160 RT-AX58U; it's only 2x4:2 5Ghz and 2x2:2 2.4Ghz but most clients are 2x2 max anyways, and the drop in receive sensitivity won't make that much of a difference for just 1200 square feet of range. You might also consider a 4x4 AC Wave 2 box like the $200 Synology RT2600AC, which is more or less a Netgear R7800 with a more stable firmware track record. It's also Qualcomm-based, which I like better than Broadcom for general wifi behavior and throughput over distance. As far as Qualcomm AX all-in-ones, I haven't really seen anything from Netgear, TP-Link or Asus that would suggest to me they're stable enough to justify the prices, and OpenWRT is likely a year or more away from supporting them.

The other approach would be a wired router plus an access point, optionally a PoE managed switch, but even though it will likely provide a more appliance-like and less toy-like network, it does complicate the setup. The most classic answer to this is to start with the all-in-one, and then it if it falls on its face for whatever reason, re-purpose it as just an AP and drop in a proper wired router running whatever distro floats your boat (EdgeOS, RouterOS, pfSense, OpenWRT, etc.) and however much CPU firepower you need (ARM embedded or x86 PC hardware).

 

[pkr505]

Thanks! Those options and advice are exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Trip]

Very welcome! Best of luck, and do come back and let us know what you picked and how it's worked out for you.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

AX58U; it's only 2x2 wifi streams

Just a FYI this was discussed in another thread and Merlin reached out to a Asus contact that confirmed the AX58U is a 2x4 on 5Ghz and 2x2 on 2.4 Ghz.

 

[Trip]

Just a FYI this was discussed in another thread and Merlin reached out to a Asus contact that confirmed the AX58U is a 2x4 on 5Ghz and 2x2 on 2.4 Ghz.

Oops. Indeed correct. Post updated.